This short post discusses my final day of my (anti-) Epic Ski Trip 2015. I flew home this evening on January 19, 2015.
I awake on my last morning in San Francisco on this trip, realizing it’s the first morning of the trip when I can just relax with no buses or trains to catch, lift lines, or hikes to take. My first commitment is at 1:00pm to see more of Joey, my friend in Berkeley until my evening flights home from Oakland via LAX to JFK. Hostel check out is at 11:00am so I decide to go for a bit of a morning walk I end up walking down Lombard Street, I enjoy the no pedestrians and other rules signs along this landmarked, over visited street.
I head back to the Hostel around 10:00am, have a good chat with my hostel mates re-pack for flying and end up checking out a minute before 11:00am. Armed with my luggage, this time I take the more direct Route 49 bus down Van Ness, buying another $2.25 paper transfer of ride time. I make a quick stop at a Staples store in the middle of the route to buy new earbud headphones for my flight and get back on the same bus route. This bus takes me to the Muni Metro Van Ness Station so I take the MUNI Metro the 1 stop (flashing my transfer to the customer service agent who beeps me through the fare gates) to Civic Center–(12 Photos)
A Dublin/Pleasanton Train comes first. I decide I might as well take it to West Oakland–(11 Photos) and get to enjoy the nice, warm weather.
This time I’m meeting my fried Joey in Ashby–(32 Photos) where I happily arrive 15 minutes early to get a real photo essay of the unique layout and interesting street elements at this station that was towards the top of my list to leave fare control at since BART lacks unlimited passes. It’s another expansion to my large section on BART.
Joey picks me up in his car that provides well-needed luggage storage. We first head to a great lunch place and then up to take a nice warm walk in the Berkeley Hills. After our hike (around 3:30), Joey, not I hears a train whistle off in the distance. He knows of my interest in trains so we follow the signs for the Railway and pull into the parking lot of the Redwood Valley Railway. It’s a authentic steam train in a 5″ scale. I pay for our $3 tickets for the next 12 minute 1.5 mile ride, that’s really neat. I let the photos do the talking.
We leave the railroad and head back to Joey’s House for a shorter than anticipated relaxing time of maybe half an hour, before Joey drives me to the Macarthur BART station and I being another long, through the night journey home.